A Process Safety Management Quiz

Jeff Joseck is a staff engineer with Union Carbide. He developed this clever quiz and kindly offered it for publication. It stimulates the Process Safety Engineer or the Loss Prevention Engineer to think about acceptable and minimal risks. A few minor changes were made in Jeff s quiz to better fit the style of this chapter. 

A Process Safety Management Problem Is Presented to the Committee 

Consider the following operation from the aspect of process safety. There is an urgency to conduct this operation in the plant tomorrow. 

Basically, it is a transfer of flammable liquid to a tank. The liquid will be 40—50° F with a flash point below —20° F. The fluid s electrical conductivity is low enough to create static. 

The tank does not have an inert blanket. The tank is vented to the air and there wasn t a flame arrester installed on the tank. 

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